Rownie, the youngest in Graba the witchworker's household of stray
children, escapes and goes looking for his missing brother. Along the
way he falls in with a troupe of theatrical goblins and learns the
secret origins of masks. Now Graba's birds are hunting him in the
Southside of Zombay, the Lord Mayor's guards are searching for him in
Northside, and the River between them is getting angry. The city needs
saving—and only the goblins know how.

Rachel has always idolized her older brother Micah. He struggles with
addiction, but she tells herself that he’s in control. And she almost
believes it. Until the night that Micah doesn’t come home. Rachel’s
terrified―and she can’t help but feel responsible. She should have
listened when Micah tried to confide in her. And she only feels more
guilt when she receives an anonymous note telling her that Micah is
nearby and in danger. With nothing more to go on than hope and a slim
lead, Rachel and Micah’s best friend, Tyler, begin the search. Along the
way, Rachel will be forced to confront her own dark secrets, her
growing attraction to Tyler… and the possibility that Micah may never
come home.

When the Khmer Rouge arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn is just a
kid, dancing to rock 'n' roll, hustling for spare change, and selling
ice cream with his brother. But after the soldiers march the entire
population into the countryside, Arn is separated from his family and
assigned to a labor camp. One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids
can play an instrument. In order to survive, Arn must quickly master the
strange revolutionary songs the soldiers demand. This will save his
life, but it will also pull him into the very center of what we know
today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be
liberated, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier. He lives
by the simple credo: “Over and over I tell myself one thing: never fall
down.” Based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, this is an achingly
raw and powerful novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace.

When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos in
Congo, she’s not thrilled to be there. It’s her mother’s passion, and
Sophie doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. At least not until
Otto, an infant bonobo, comes into her life, and for the first time she
feels the bond a human can have with an animal. But peace does not last
long for Sophie and Otto. When an armed revolution breaks out, the
sanctuary is attacked, and the two of them must escape unprepared into
the jungle. Caught in the crosshairs of a lethal conflict, they must
struggle to keep safe, to eat, and to survive.

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking
discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom
split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that
spanned three continents. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet
spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a
commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water
manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists
was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of
the plotting, risk-taking, deceit, and genius that created the world's
most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

It's also fascinating to learn about who judged the books in this category:

Born and raised in England, Susan Cooper has been writing books for children and young adults since 1963. Her classic five-book fantasy sequence, The Dark Is Rising,
won the Newbery Medal and Carnegie and Newbery Honors, and she is the
2012 recipient of the American Library Association’s Margaret Edwards
Award for lifetime achievement. A board member of the National
Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, she lives on an island in a
saltmarsh in Massachusetts.

Daniel Ehrenhaft is a bestselling author of books for teens, among them The Wessex Papers, winner of the 2003 Edgar Award, and most recently Americapedia (2011), which The New York Times has called "Jon Stewart's America for the YA set." As an editor, he helped to create the Gossip Girl and Peaches series. He is now Editorial Director of Soho Teen, whose first list launches in January, 2013.www.danielehrenhaft.com

Judith Ortiz Cofer is the author the YA story collection An Island Like You (1995); YA novels The Meaning of Consuelo (2003), Call Me Maria (2004), and If I Could Fly (2011); and other works. She has published poetry and prose in The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Glamour,
and other journals and anthologies. She is the Regents and Franklin
Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia.judithortizcofer.english.uga.edu

Gary D. Schmidt is a Professor of English at
Calvin College, where he teaches courses in writing, medieval
literature, and children's literature. He is the author of the Newbery
Honor and Printz Honor-winning novel Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2004), the Newbery Honor- winning The Wednesday Wars (2007), and Okay for Now, a National Book Award finalist in 2011.He lives on a two-hundred-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan.

Marly Youmans is the author of nine books,
including novels, poetry collections, and several Southern fantasies for
young adults. She is the recipient of theMichael Shaara Prizeand was a finalist for the Southern Book Award for The Wolf Pit (2001), won theFerrol Sams Award for A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage
(2012), and received several Hoepfner Awards, among other honors. A
Carolinian, she lives in Cooperstown, New York with her husband and
three children.www.thepalaceat2.blogspot.com